Customers don’t buy WHAT you do. They buy WHY you do it.
I have long been a fan of Start With Why, the book and TED talk by Simon Sinek. It changed the way we advertised at TiVo and still inspires me today. If you're a company, you have to be clear about WHY you exist. It’s your mission and your brand’s North Star.
Sinek uses Apple’s WHY as an example: We challenge convention. And since 1997(!) Apple has embraced the tagline Think Different. At that time, they were truly a brand for rebels. Now firmly entrenched in the mainstream, Apple still maintains that WHY at their core. Today you’d buy any product that they make — a phone, a watch, even a blender — because you believe that it will be different.
Apple’s iconic Think Different launch campaign.
Nike is another classic example of a brand who has kept their WHY at the forefront of every “It” that they “Just Do”. Some other great WHYs — Adidas: Impossible is Nothing. Dove: Real Beauty. Mini: Let’s Motor. HP: Invent. BMW: The Ultimate Driving Machine. Embrace your WHY, and innovation and customer loyalty follow.
So often in advertising, we don’t stop to consider why customers should care about us. We think that if they only knew about our new features, they would surely have to buy our product. But you can’t rationalize someone into making what is often an emotional purchase decision. TiVo’s campaign was simply "12 Reasons to buy a TiVo." It was a laundry list of WHATs, like storage capacity. I countered that people might resonate more with the idea of having "funner." Campaign testing proved that to be the case.
Starting with WHY works, but it's not for the faint of heart. Until your client or company discovers their WHY, it’s difficult to lead them. But once you establish your brand’s North Star, everyone marches in step. Even people who may be in analytics, product development, or accounting. Emotionally-resonant advertising is hard to quantify, but it can be helpful that they see creativity grounded in rationality.
One final word of caution: Changing your WHY capriciously confuses consumers and dilutes your brand. Companies that will stand for anything, stand for nothing. Success depends on consistent and long-term use of your WHY across media. Stick with it.